Everyone's Catching Things
by The Gay Agenda
Summary: Post Fairest On Ice, Duchess Swan catches a cold. Poppy O'Hair brings her some comfort food, and explains what it means to catch feelings. One-shot. Fluffy fluff fluff.


**Duchess Swan on How Not to 'Catch Feelings'**

"Achoo!"

"And the poor girl claims that she's not sick."

"Oh, quiet, Lizzie." Duchess sniffed, wiping her nose. "I'm not sick, I just have, uh, allergies." Then, she sneezed again, and frowned at the smug expression on her roommate's face. "Ok. So I might be sick. But it's not a big deal." Her roommate suddenly giggled, and Duchess looked over, annoyed. "Who are you hexting?"

She suddenly flushed so red it matched the heart over her eye. "No one." Lizzie said quickly, setting her Mirror Pad down. "I just have a fairy nice date tonight."

"Riiiight." Duchess rolled her eyes, then sneezed again. "I guess this is what I get for skating all day."

The Wonderlandian nodded. "I told you so. This morning you were so adamant about going out! And I said, oh goodness no Duchess, you can't go out in _those_ clothes, they're not insulated! But you insisted on going anyway."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Duchess sneezed for a third time. "I should just try to sleep this off."

Lizzie, grinning from her perch on her bed, stretched her arms. She sent another hext out on her Mirror Pad, and then said, "I suppose you could. I should just leave you to that, then." The future queen heaved off of her bed and strutted toward the door, waving goodbye to the swan princess.

Unamused, Duchess asked, "Going out to see your secret boyfriend?"

Lizzie hesitated. "Oh, yes, boyfriend, right." She said nervously. "I must be off, bye!"

The door slammed behind her, leaving Duchess alone. "Ugh, boyfriends." She muttered to herself. "Pathetic." Duchess had never had a boyfriend. It wasn't that boys weren't ever interested in her, (at least she _hoped_ that wasn't why), it was just there were no boys to match her standards. Well, there was Daring Charming, the most perfect and handsome fairytale prince on the planet. She was, however, quite aware of the fact that he was (most likely) sneaking around with Cerise Hood. That's what Sparrow said, at least. He spied on his cousin a little too much, and constantly informed Duchess when Cerise was with the swan princess's crush.

Some people assumed that she and Sparrow were a thing themselves. But besides their shared love of birds-Sparrow had a total of 27 pet parakeets-they weren't compatible. Duchess needed someone who took charge, who wasn't afraid to stare fear in the face, someone who was willing to make their own path in the world. Someone like-

"Knock knock!"

Duchess looked up. "Doors don't talk, genius." She called.

The old wooden door creaked open, and one strawberry-blonde twin waltzed in. A brown paper bag in hand, Poppy O'Hair strutted in. "Whatever you say, Duchess." She said, smiling. "Lizzie hexted me earlier and said you were sick. And after showing me how wicked fun it was to ice skate, I thought I could return the favor."

"I did?" Duchess replied, confused.

Poppy nodded and set the bag down. She flopped onto Duchess's bed, abnormally close to her. "Yeah. I mean at first I was so freaked out. Holly pushed me forward and I was struggling for a while. But then, after we totally shredded that hill, it was much better!" She dug around in her bag.

"I, uh, oh." The swan princess had no clue how to respond. Instead, she sneezed.

Instinctively, Poppy handed her a tissue from the bag. She giggled a bit, before setting a full tissue box on the bag.

"What are you laughing at?" Duchess asked, taking the tissue and blowing her nose.

"Nothing. You just sound like you're honking when you sneeze." Poppy smiled. She reached back into the bag and retrieved two white boxes. "Want some? I stopped by the Golden Dragon earlier and picked up so chow for me and Kitty." She grabbed some chopsticks out of her purse. "We were supposed to be working on a piece for Muse-ic Class, but she canceled for some reason."

Duchess picked up one of the white boxes and opened it. "You mean the Personality Piece?" Duchess whined. "I absolutely hate that project!" She honked. "It's so- _is this Sweet and Sour Chicken?_ "

Poppy giggled at her response. "Yeah. It's my favorite." She used her chopsticks to pick a piece out of Duchess's box.

The girl sneezed again, and then said, "Well, it's my favorite too." Grabbing the other pair of chopsticks, she fiddled around with them, trying to get a piece.

"Here, let me help." Poppy leaned forward and picked up another one. "Open up." She commanded.

"Um," Duchess was about to protest when Poppy stuffed the chicken in her mouth. "Mmph!" Her voice was muffled. After taking time to chew and swallow, she said, "You can't just stuff food in my mouth! What if I choked?"

"Well, you didn't." Poppy munched on another piece of chicken.

The swan princess was even more confused. "Aren't you worried you're going to catch my cold?" She asked while trying to master her chopsticks.

"Nah." Poppy responded. "I've never gotten sick, ever. I don't catch anything but feelings."

"Catch...feelings?" Duchess cocked her head to the side. "What does that mean?"

Poppy thought for a minute. Putting her chopsticks in her takeout box, she said, "You know, when you start to think of someone as more than a friend. You catch feelings for them." She wiped her mouth with a napkin. "Like, this one time when we were kids, we had this really cute next door neighbor. Holly was her best friend, and so she was always at our house. Then one day, I kinda realized that I liked her."

"Oh." Was all Duchess could say (thought it came out as a honk). While she still wasn't sure about the 'catching feelings' ordeal, there was now something more pressing on her mind. "If you don't mind me asking, uh," another honk, then, "are you gay?"

Her companion looked at her. Her blue-green eyes caught Duchess's in a long, heart-stopping stare. And then she laughed. "Oh hex no! I'm bisexual. You know, I like both genders."

"Oh, yeah, I know what it is." And oh did she know. She didn't like to tell people, but Duchess had quite the...unique love life before Ever After High. It was fairy sexual and fairy mixed on the gender scale. "It's totally fine. I didn't mean to pry."

Poppy shrugged. "It's fine. Holly jokes that it's part of my Rebel charm." She smiled. She ate some more of their takeout and set her hand down. In one of the most cliche moves in the book, her hand landed on top of Duchess's.

Duchess blushed the color of Lizzie's hair. "I, uh…"

It was in that moment that Poppy's Mirror Pad buzzed. "Oh, hex." She muttered, looking at the message. "Holly's having another hairy fail."

"Don't you mean fairy fail?"

"Oh, trust me, I mean hairy." Poppy grinned. "Keep the food though, and the tissues. I might need them back if I catch your cold!" She got up, straightened out her skirt, and smiled.

"Thanks Poppy." Duchess said, smiling slightly. She shivered a bit, and ate some more of the food.

Before she left, Poppy removed her scarf and wrapped it around Duchess's next. "And try to stay warmer now. No more ice skating." She chided the other girl, albeit teasingly. And with that, she was out the door and gone.

Duchess sat their, staring down at the scarf. "Why was she so nice to me?" She asked herself. "No one's ever that nice." The swan princess sat there, contemplating the previous conversation. She thought about everything, especially how her skin felt under the warmth of Poppy.

" _I don't catch anything but feelings_." Poppy's voice ran through Duchess's head.

"I'm not catching feelings." Duchess snorted. "...right?"


End file.
